Development Environment

This should perhaps be called "The Lewis & Clark Page" for it explores new territories acquiring our city-TLD opens for processes and technologies that will enable a city to flourish in an era marked by both face-to-face and digital networking. It looks at personal, family, civic, community, and business opportunities that can be facilitated by a city-TLD, and seeks worthy projects in which New Yorkers will invest their time, energy, and other limited resources.

Baseline Programs

As projects are agreed upon and funded, they become a baseline of the .nyc TLD's future operation. Details on baseline programs can be found on our Operating Environment page. The following baseline programs are central to .nyc's operation and will be initiated upon activation of the .nyc TLD.

Domain Name Allocation Plan - Our very existence is predicated upon developing a sound and equitable Domain Name Allocation Plan (DNAP). But that plan will be refined and improved as conditions warrant and the DNAP will remain our premier endeavor. See the Domain Name Allocation Plan development page to participate in the plan's creation.

The Portals - The .nyc portals will be a penultimate development effort and an ever evolving guidance tool for those seeking city resources. There's much to be done in portal development. Join the portal development effort here.

Target Projects

Making a TLD the central organizing network for a city is a relatively new development. While Singapore and Hong Kong have some experience with "city-TLDs" their experience arose through university administered TLDs issued in the 1980s. Whole-cloth design of the .nyc TLD provides many interesting opportunities.

The Civic Projects

Civic Education - Engagement with community and civic affairs is facilitated by a media literate society. We will advocate for universal access to Internet service for education, training, and the delivery of government services with our Civic Education page detailing our premier effort in this mission critical area.

Community: Identity, Trust, Justice, and Civic Pride - We need not invent new technology to improve civic communication: a simple cooperative directory of civic groups, activities, issues, and events will suffice. But while we can readily provide good domain names and domain directory, it's the close integration of tech with human thought and action that provides the ultimate opportunity. As we network our digital and atomic worlds, we'll discover that we live in a small city after all. It is within the realm of identity, trust, community, justice, and civic pride that the sweet fruits of the Internet are to be found. Join our exploration of these opportunities.

Mobility - We're a small geographic entity with 1/10th of 1% of the world's population. How we connect while on-the-go is vital to our success. Let's explore ways domain names can help us identify, locate, meet, cooperate, decide. Think streets... addresses... travel... congestion... See the Mobility page for developments in this arena.

Privacy & Security- We all want the most of each of these. But there is a point where they conflict: thus while privacy provides security and security enables privacy, privacy reduces security and security reduces privacy - got it? Help us resolve this Scylla & Charybdis on our Privacy & Security discussion and policy page.

Search Transparency- At a civic issues level, it's vital that we know why a search engine presents one site higher than another. For example, within the governance realm, we can not depend on a opaque, search cloud to set our priorities in issue and candidate listings. (The same holds true for creating a level business environment.) We imagine that the big engines will find it difficult to operate under today's shadow of suspicion and choose a more transparent operation. With suitable transparency, they might be trustworthy for civic use with Connecting.nyc's search transparency role relegated to one of testing and assurance. See Transparent Search.

Building Blocks

The following links and ideas are offered as starting points for imagining features and services that might facilitate the creation of an even better New York City.

Augmented Social Network - A proposal for an online community that would strengthen the collaborative nature of the Internet, enhancing its ability to act as a public commons that engages citizens in civil society. And see 1Society as a follow-up.

BeyondVoting - The BeyondVoting Wiki reviews a series of projects that seek better local governance, many of which are network based.

Build 1 - "Can I give you a hand with that neighbor?" is the essence of community life. A program like Build 1 can provide a means for neighbors to connect and collaborate.

Cambrian House - This site shows how community cooperation on software evaluation and development might be applied on .nyc applications. Perhaps this might provide some guidance on general decision making. (See The BeyondVoting Wiki for more on governance technology.)

Information Markets - New decision making processes are developing that induce people to research and share information on topics through economic investment. It's a "put your money where your mouth is" type of market that might be dubbed "gambling for the good."

Mashmaps - Maps are a vital part of local community and a plethora of tools are evolving around Google's API. How can we incorporate tools like this into meeting local needs?

Part of the Solution - This project envisions a means for local residents to organize themselves to address community needs. Connected with a Build 1 and Cambrian House, it might provide a means for addressing local issues locally.

Predictive Algorithms - The NetFlix Prize - seeks to improve the accuracy of predictions about future movie preferences based on their customers movie viewing experiences. Improve the predicting algorithm by 10% and you win. Winning the Netflix Prize improves Netflix's ability to connect people to the movies they like. Perhaps there's a lesson here for local policy and decision makers. (See The .nyc Prize below for a first stab at a local prize.)

The Semantic Web - A foundation tool for many of these projects is being developed by Tim Berners-Lee, the key developer of the Web.

White Papers

When the .nyc TLD was first proposed by Queens Community Board 3 in 2001, it was a unique, first of a kind proposal. To facilitate its development, Connecting.nyc Inc. initiated several explorations to uncover a city-TLD's attributes and opportunities. The following white papers have contributed to that effort.

The Prize .nyc

The Challenge: Develop the best feature in support of the .nyc community. This feature shall be one that facilitates networking within or between neighborhoods. All or a portion of the feature must exist online.

Rules: All projects must be open source. Entries are to be submitted on The Prize .nyc page where previous winners and other details are to be found. The next deadline for submission is 3:45 PM, EST, April 1, 2010.

The Prize: Win an all expense paid trip to the original Nathan's in Coney Island. Paid expenses to include transportation to Coney Island on the F train for the winner, and a guest. The top prize winner will win his/her fill of dogs and an order of fries. (NOTE: Takeru Kobayashi-types are ineligible.) The trip date is to be determined by the winner in consultation with the Prize Committee. See previous winners.